Ethics toolkit for food businesses launched

Food businesses throughout the supply chain face daily dilemmas about where their products come from, and who or what is affected by them.

The Food Ethics Council today launches a toolkit to help them get to grips with these issues, introduce key ideas in ethics, and provide a framework for decision-making.

Funded by the Naturesave Trust, ’Ethics: a toolkit for food businesses’ contains:

- A crash course in ethics and how it relates to business;
- An ethical decision-making tool;
- Business ethics myth busters; and
- A transparency test.

Dr. Tom MacMillan, Food Ethics Council executive director said:

“Ethics can seem a minefield for food businesses, facing so many competing issues, pulled this way and that by different interest groups, and under pressure to do things that might dent their bottom line.

“That’s where our toolkit can help. We guide businesses through the basics of ethics, and provide some simple tried and tested tools. Ethics is about more than saving your brand from controversy or guessing the next niche market trend – it’s about how to make good decisions that stand up to scrutiny.”

Free for food businesses, the toolkit can be ordered from the Food Ethics Council or download it here.

The Food Ethics Council works with business, government and the third sector to help find a way through controversial issues in food and farming. We undertake research and analysis, hold roundtables, seminars and conferences, publish a quarterly magazine and produce tools for decision makers.

Notes to editors

1. The Food Ethics Council works for a fair food system. Our 14 council members are experts in food and farming, from the director of external affairs at the National Trust to the sustainability director at Cadburys. You can find a full list of council members here.
2. The Naturesave Trust awarded the Food Ethics Council a grant towards the cost of the ethical toolkit. The primary function of the Trust is to encourage the greater adoption of sustainable development, especially within the Small and Medium Sized business community (SMEs).
3. The Food Ethics Council’s bi-monthly business forums give food business executives the opportunity to listen to and debate with expert speakers on topics that affect their businesses over dinner at a celebrated London restaurant.